Friday, August 17, 2012

The Critical Mom's Guide to Tick repellents

Nantucket, as everyone should know, is Lyme Disease Central. What to do if you don't like DEET on your children's skin and you know those bug repellent bracelets only work on mosquitoes? And most tick repellents seem to have about 10% essential oils?

Run and buy some of the following:

100% Lavender essential oil

100% Cedar essential oil

100% Rose Geranium essential oil
100% Citronella oil

Plus, the one I never realized we'd need:

100% Peppermint essential oil. This one repels bed bugs as well as clothing moths. The others repel deer ticks. Besides, they all smell great. You can try citronella, but it's probably only good for repelling mosquitoes.

Before going anywhere, put few drops in the palm of your hand of each oil, rub them together, and smear over ankles, wrists, arms, and in hair. Keep away from eyes!

I have peppermint essential oil and this sounds like a great use for it. Also have tons of DEET, but I now fear it probably causes cancer. Reading about debulking makes me think we live in an increasingly toxic environment ... cancer agents all over the place, seen and unseen. The seen ones at least should be avoided!

How well I remember a time when one of my greatest concerns was to make sure neither of my sons (then about ages one and three) grew up to b...

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